Quirky observations about Life in Japan, Canada and the world at large.

2008-10-30

A Stitch In Time.

I have no idea when I acquired this but am I glad I found it yesterday. Now the mushy white stuff they pass off as bread over here can be made into sandwiches with Stitch's face engraved in them!

I won this in one of those Conbini-"buy a 500 yen ticket and raffle for a random piece of Stitch crap a few years back. I don't have much else Stitch-related, thus I must have won it on a first or second try!

Recently they've had another one of them and I got this: Not very impressive, but it does light up (as soon as I can find the proper batteries that is.) I also won a pen the other day that flashes on & off. I've been using it during my Halloween lessons to place in a Jack o'Lantern while explaining the glowing ember that the Devil gave Jack to light his way. (It's a long story, look it up...)

Finally, here is a チョコがサクサク, some little chocolate confectionary square with cornflakes inside. Actually rather yummy!

I have to put my costume together in the morning. I know what I'm wearing but unsure as to how to assemble it! I can't wait to see all of the witches tomorrow night at Echophonyk at Shaft so it's off to bed to dream of ghosts & goblins!

I've been searching for the main part of my Halloween costume, which due to financial restraints, timing & lack of originality on my part, will have to be a recycled one from a few years back. I'll add a few tidbits to it, so you'll just have to wait and see for the finished result.

But while digging through boxes, I discovered a trove of Kubricks! One may recall way back here that I had nearly completed my set of Universal Monsters. Well, I'm one step closer. For the Bride has been unveiled! Elsa Lancester has never looked lovelier (a difficult task since she is anything but lovely.) In The Bride of Frankenstein, she played the author, Mary Shelley, as well as the Monster's betrothed.

She also came along with a reproduction of Victor Von Frankenstein's original work bench! (Click that link to hear the Doc's most famous line.)

In addition I found a couple of the original boxes they'd come in. Series 1 exclaims, "Welcome! Universal Monsters Rock'n Roll Show!!" It reminds me of the awesome Pinball machine, Monster Bash!

Series 2 is not as nostalgic for it relates, "If monsters haunt you, you're not alone..."

Here is the lineup for your perusal, but alas the characters on the right, Dr. Frankenstein & The Mole People were the rarest of the lot (frequency: 2/24) and it's pretty expensive to track them down. Some day...

I noticed that I had several doubles including 2 of my post's title actor, The Invisible Man. If you'd like any, put in your orders now!

2008-10-29

Get Lost!

I popped into Yodabashi Camera looking for last-minute Halloween Costume ideas and came up with squat. I found a couple of trinkets upon which to waste my money but decided it wasn't worthwhile. I thought all was lost until I espied LOST! Kubrick has come up with Lost figures!

They aren't cheap so I only got one, but it's my second favourite character, Sawyer! (My fave, Hurley, is alas much rarer!)

Manoman, the Kubrick corporation must be expecting a ton of wrongful death/ choking victims...check out this warning label! (Click it to make it Monolithic.)

Btw, in case you get Lost on Friday, the Echophonyk Halloween Party is at Shaft!

2008-10-27

Bring Out Your Deadites!

Evil Dead is a great series of movies but my personal favourite has to be Army Of Darkness. To be honest, I believe I've only seen the first two once decades ago thus my opinion may be a little jaded. 2 Summers ago I had the distinct pleasure of watching a musical based on Evil Dead appropriately called Evil Dead, The Musical. If you click that link, you'll find a brief write-up about it. For some reason none of the photos show up (old Blogger glitch, I suspect) so I'll have to reproduce them as best as I can remember.

But before I do that, here is something I came across while searching through my hordes of crap that appears intriguing. Once upon a time, I bought Army of Darkness Death to the Mortals Boxed Set and one day I may open them, but I'm hoping someone will read this and make me an offer to buy them.

As you can see, we have the Deadite Band, The Books of the Dead, a few Deadites and the Mantlet. Not an impressive lot, I must admit. That could be why I got them on sale those many moons ago from the Silver Snail.

If you do pick this up from me, please be sure to heed the warning! I guess 14 is the cut-off age when children stop eating lead skeletons. (Be sure to click to reverse the Homunculus-size.)

As promised, here are all the photos from that previous post above. I'll have to revise that post as well someday but till I do, you'll have to visit that post for the captions.

In what must be the least scary voice-over ever, here is the Japanese trailer for the original movie, 死霊のはらわた:

Terrifying Triffids Taste-Test Tart! (But in order for plants to cannibalistic, don't they have to eat other plants, not humans?)

Pike-headed Pirates Plague Personnel.

Flowery Foreheaded Fiends Frighten Friends!

Maniacal Mummies Maraud Men.

Ethereal Elder and Energy Entities Engender Eerieness!

Triceratopian-Teddy Terrifies Teen!

Shatner Savagely Slays Serpent.

Chrystalline Creature Creates Crisis!

Aliens Attack Animal-people & Spock Acquires Alien Action, Awesome!

Ghostly Gal Gets Guys all Glowy!

Scotty Scratched by Scrawny Soaring Spawn!

Cyclops Snares Star Trek Staff!

UPDATE: I just noticed that all my captions were mixed up. We apologize for the inconvenience but the alliterative headlines have been corrected. (Frick'n Blogspot has changed the order of uploading its pictures so that everything has been reversed. I hope I don't have to check every post!)

2008-10-23

Battle Royale With Cheese.

Okay, did you watch that? Now you have the basic premise for today's Halloweeny post. Andy and I watched バトル・ロワイアル together back in our Soma days and we were treated to a running commentary by a young pup named Jessie who was helping out at the school and had learned Japanese in High School. After about 20 minutes of his constant narration, we asked him to be quiet and we watched the gruesome proceedings with rapt attention.
(Aside: I've never met anyone who likes the sound of his own voice more than Jessie.
Andy and I were really rather cruel to him, talking over his head and then giggling about it.)

But apart from that viewing, I have never seen it, so I'm not completely sure of the dialogue but the premise is brilliant. Sort of Lord of the Flies meets The Most Dangerous Game meets 1984 meets Fast Times at Ridgemont High. (Just kidding about the last one, but be sure to click that link to watch the 1932 film starring most of the King Kong crew!)

Thus since I'm no expert on the movie I'll just offer up some pics from the 2 movie programs I picked up for a buck a piece.

Starting off with a "Do your best" speech by Beat Takeshi, it quickly gets weirder and more and more violent.

Of course, all you Kill Bill fans will recognize Chiaki Kuriyamaas Takako Chigusa. Though I've seen a few of the other faces pop up here and there, none ring a resounding bell.

If you're wondering where the cheese from the title comes from, I'd recommend BR II!

About Me

I was born a young white child. After almost 20 years of depressing social work, dealing with all manners of society's dregs, I decided to chuck it all and move to Japan and teach English. Now I'm a happy camper teaching Elementary School kids in Watari, Miyagi.